The Treaty of Ghent

December 24, 1814
The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814 in what is now the European country of Belgium. It wouldn’t be ratified til February of 1815, but the treaty marked the end of the war. Britain wouldn’t fight the Americans with the Native Americans and would stop giving them support against America. The U.S. would now be able to trade and seek to expand their borders.
January , 1815
In January of 1815, before ratification but after the Treaty had been signed, Andrew Jackson, a future U.S. President, led a group of American soldiers fighting against British troops in the Battle of New Orleans. They hadn’t received word that the Treaty of Ghent had occurred – the war was over! But it nevertheless gave the U.S. a confidence boost anyway.
The war was a draw
The war was a draw; no one actually won, and none of the conflicts going into the War of 1812 were truly solved. The Native Americans suffered a loss in that they no longer had the support of the British in their attempts to hold the American expansion at bay. The U.S., as a young country, had defended itself in its “second war for independence” from Great Britain and enjoyed the encouragement of a renewed sense of self from holding their ground. It began what is called the “Era of Good Feelings” for the United States and the end of divided conflicts over expansion. America was growing and moving forward!